Minutes of the EDF Skills Sub-group meeting held on 8 February in Adelaide House, Adelaide Street, Belfast

Present: Declan Billington – Chair

Joanne Stuart (Institute of Directors)

Trevor Neilands (NRC)

Prof Norman Black (UU)

Prof Ken Brown (QUB)

Robson Davison (DE)

Nuala Kerr (DEL)

Michael Gould (DEL)

Sian McCleave (DEL – Secretariat)

Colin Woods (DEL – Secretariat)

Apologies: Mike Mullan

Victor Jordan (Invest NI)

Michael Hughes (NI Chamber of Commerce)

Tom Gillen (ICTU)

1. Welcome and Minutes of Previous Meeting

Declan welcomed everyone to the meeting. It was agreed that the minutes of the previous meeting provided an accurate record of that meeting.

2. Matters Arising

Careers Strategy – ways to increase employer engagement

• Robson gave an overview of his successful meeting with Business in the Community and felt that this could be used as a template for the workshop with the Business Alliance, aimed at discussing possible ways to put in place an employer engagement structure. He said that he thought that there was a strong appetite for industry to engage with government. He also outlined DE’s progress in relation to the creation of STEM and ICT Specialist Schools.

Uptake of Vocation Training

• Declan requested some figures which would reflect the trends in the uptake of training.

[ACTION: M Gould]

Roll out of Adult Apprenticeships

• Nuala agreed to provide a copy of the report relating to the roll out of Adult Apprenticeships in the North West as she felt there were a number of lessons to be learnt from this.

[ACTION: N Kerr]

Economic Development Forum

• Declan felt that in order for the future skills supply to be suitable there needed to be a clear articulation from DETI/Invest NI of the sectors they felt would grow in the short and longer term. He commented that he would raise this issue at the next EDF Plenary.

[ACTION: D Billington]

3. Update on Success through Skills; the Skills Strategy for Northern Ireland

Michael Gould gave an update on the progress of the implementation of the strategy since the last meeting. He commented that the Terms of Reference for the review of Success through Skills were now available as an early draft and that he would welcome the views of the Sub Group. Declan agreed that the members of the group would provide comment on the Terms of Reference within the week (These comments should be sent to sian.mccleave@delni.gov.uk).

4. Universities’ papers on their contribution to the skills agenda in Northern Ireland.

Professors Norman Black and Ken Brown gave an overview of the work their respective universities were undertaking in this area. The following issues were raised:

• The Universities work in this area needed to be fully informed by DETI/Invest NI economic forecasts.

• The University of Ulster has fully embedded entrepreneurialism into their curriculum, with every taught programme having this as part of the learning outcomes. This agenda is driven by the NI Centre for Entrepreneurialism (NICENT). In addition, employability skills are provided through the Careers Development Centre. Queen’s University Belfast has also embedded entrepreneurialism into its undergraduate curriculum in all three faculties.

• The number of placements being sought by students, and the number of placements offered by industry, has decreased in recent years.

5. DE Update

Robson gave an overview of the work being taken forward by the Department of Education, specifically in relation to Transfer and Sustainable Schools.

6. AOB

Declan informed the meeting that he would be proposing that the next EDF plenary focus should on skills. It was agreed that Martin Lancaster should be invited to present ‘Closing the Deal – the role of Skills in the FDI Process’.

[ACTION: D Billington]

Discussion on the draft ICT Sector Action plan and Catherine and Robson’s 14-19 presentation were deferred to the next meeting.

7. Date of Next meeting

Possible dates to be circulated for next meeting

[ACTION: Secretariat]